convulsively
Americanadverb
Explanation
To do something convulsively is to do it in an irregular, jerky way. If you can't help laughing convulsively during a friend's awkward speech, you'll be shaking with laughter. Movements that are connected to actual convulsions — the involuntary, abnormal movement of the body's muscles — happen convulsively. Other things occur convulsively too, like hiccups and laughter and crying: "She sobbed convulsively when her dog ran away." The adverb convulsively comes from the verb convulse, which is rooted in the Latin convulsus, "pulled away" or "wrenched."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I was vomiting so convulsively they removed them to get the spasms to stop.
From Washington Post • May 27, 2022
Not convulsively, but enough that I didn’t get kicked out of the joint.
From Golf Digest • Apr. 28, 2020
A camera catches him sprawled on the locker room floor, still in his uniform and crying convulsively, onto no one’s shoulder — a sudden metaphor of himself.
From New York Times • Apr. 19, 2020
He had weak lungs, and his friend was worried about him, because he coughed convulsively whenever there was any smoke or tear gas in the air.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 9, 2019
He was lying on his back across the floor of the collapsed shelter, shivering convulsively.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
